Bush Stepping Up Attacks On Mccain In South Carolina

Senator Ignores Hypocrite Charge

FLORENCE, S.C. — Texas Gov. George W. Bush stepped up his attacks Thursday on his chief rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain, suggesting that McCain is a hypocrite. McCain, who has surged in the polls here since sweeping New Hampshire on Feb. 1, largely ignored the attacks. Instead, he spent much of the day tying himself to Republican icon Ronald Reagan and declaring, "If we can win here, I don't really see how we can be stopped."

Following an appearance at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Bush complained that McCain violated his pledge against running a negative campaign by distributing fliers that criticized the Texas governor's $483 billion tax-cut proposal and his federal education policy plans.

"The senator's got to understand that he can't have it both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low road. This is a man who says one thing and does another," Bush said.

McCain defended the circular, and said he has no plans to pull it.

"The flier is accurate. It is totally accurate," he said. "Apparently George Bush does not like losing."

Gary Bauer, a conservative activist and former candidate for the Republican nomination for president who has endorsed McCain, said conservatives would back McCain if their leaders did not keep distorting McCain's record.

"They've been told a lot of half-truths. They've had some pretty scurrilous (campaign tactics) done. Until that is responded to, that can take root," said Bauer, who is traveling with McCain in South Carolina.

Riding on the Straight Talk Express, McCain was asked Thursday about his use of the word "gook" to refer to his captors during the Vietnam War. McCain defended his use of the term. He said he and his fellow prisoners of war have applied the term only to those who brutalized them during the war, and not to other Vietnamese or Asians in general.

McCain, a former Navy flier, was shot down in Vietnam and spent 5 1/2 years in a Vietnamese prison camp.

"I'm referring to my prison guards. I will continue to refer to them in language that may offend some people here because of their beating and torture and killing of my friends," McCain said. "I hated the gooks and I will hate them as long as I live."

McCain used the word "gooks" in a 1973 account of his prison years in U.S. News & World Report.

The Nation magazine reported in December that McCain had used the word on his campaign bus and that it had gone unreported by reporters accompanying him. The issue was revived recently following reports that the Nation article was quoted in e-mail messages circulating among Asian-Americans.

Bush pleaded with Republican voters in Florence, the Myrtle Beach area and Charleston to go to the polls in the state's open primary Saturday and offset any surge of Democrats and independents voting for the Arizona senator.

"I'm not kidding," Bush told an audience of 400 in Florence. "We need to turn out this vote." And in Myrtle Beach, where he addressed a rally of more than 1,000 people at Coastal Carolina University, Bush predicted "we're going to have a glorious day at the polls."

Bush's negative attacks on McCain present a change in tactics for the Texas governor, who at one time was viewed as the clear front-runner for the GOP nomination.

Bush began attacking McCain in South Carolina after he suffered a 19 percentage point defeat by the senator in the New Hampshire primary. Bush complained then that McCain had been allowed to define him because he had not forcefully responded.

That has changed substantially in South Carolina, however. Bush is running an extensive and expensive attack campaign on television and radio. While McCain pulled his negative broadcast advertising, Bush has continued his own, running a risk of being seen as a negative campaigner.

The Texas governor also is getting help from all quarters of the GOP establishment.

The commander of the South Carolina National Guard, Adjutant Gen. Stan Spears, signed a glowing letter of endorsement for distribution by the Bush campaign. Without naming McCain, the letter implied that the Arizonan would sacrifice his principles to impress the media.

McCain said he was shocked that a military commander would engage in political activity.

But Spears said he is an elected official, not bound by rules against political activity that federal employees in the Guard must abide by. "I don't answer to anybody," he said.

McCain's support in South Carolina jumped significantly after he beat Bush by a surprisingly wide margin in New Hampshire, but his chances for victory still rest on a heavy voter turnout, particularly among independents and Democrats who can vote in the Republican primary.

"We now see the level of enthusiasm we saw in New Hampshire," McCain said. "Whether that will translate into victory, I don't know. But we're seeing enthusiasm."